It saddens me to reappear before you here today at a time when under the yoke of the clerical regime, my homeland is labeled as the greatest threat to international peace and security, and more importantly, from my vantage point, this threat comes at the cost of great pain and suffering for my fellow compatriots in Iran.

Fear of the first state-sponsor of terrorism acquiring nuclear weapons, with all of its implications for nuclear blackmail and terror, even unconventional delivery of a nuclear device to Europe or to these shores, has been widely discussed. But let me address how the strategic landscape is viewed by those in power in Iran:

Like all totalitarian systems, the Islamist regime in Tehran needs to expand in order to survive. Mr. Ahmadinejad has worked to become more popular on the Arab street than he is in Iranian homes. His instruments of oppression â€“ special units of the Revolutionary Guards and the Basijis â€“ feel intensely disliked and find their morale eroded while on patrol in major Iranian cities, but they walk ten feet tall in the souks from Mindanawa to Damascus; this is because they present themselves as champions of radical Islamism in front of the West.

As long as the Islamic Republic is in power, the project for democracy in the greater Middle East may actually pave the way for Iranâ€™s expansionism. Witness the Islamic Republicâ€™s ally Hamasâ€™ victory in Palestinian elections. The coalition forces have removed Saddam and placed power in Iraqâ€™s elected parliament. But who is the king maker in that parliament today? It is the leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iran who for twenty years was nurtured and prepared for his present role by the leaders of the Islamic Republic. Nor is Iran limiting its bet to one option. Three weeks ago, the leader of the most radical Shiite faction in Iraq, went to Tehran to receive financial, intelligence and organizational support.

WASHINGTON, March 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Appearing as the "news maker" guest of the National Press Club, Reza Pahlavi of Iran challenged the ongoing debate
between proponents of military action versus diplomacy, instead appealing to
the "free world to support the thousand circles of localized dissent and
opposition that readily exists in Iran, but which desperately need to link
with one another and the outside world." Explaining how this vast network of
homegrown dissent was being kept isolated from each other by the regime, he
said that it would readily flourish only if it could "find solidarity with
each other and an unwavering free world."

In his remarks to representatives of the international news media, the 45-
year-old opposition leader to the Islamic regime warned that just as the
"Euro-three diplomatic efforts bought Iran's theocrats three extra years,
another series of cat-and-mouse games with the Russians may buy the clerical regime the time it needs to make the bomb."

Rejecting any talk of military strikes against his homeland, the former
jet fighter pilot said that "it would ultimately rally nationalistic
sentiments which would work to the regime's advantage; consequently, giving
the theocrats a much longer lease on life." Calling the situation in his
homeland "a race against time," he said that "it was a matter of what comes
first in Iran: Democracy or nuclear weapons?"

Offering his geo-strategic view of the region, the former Crown Prince
pointed to the regional ambitions of an increasingly adventurous clerical
regime in Tehran. Referring to a "Bermuda Triangle from Iraq to Lebanon to
Palestine," which was being taken over by Iran's allies, "through the ballot
box," he said, "as long as the Islamic Republic was in power, the project for
democracy in the greater Middle East may actually pave the way for Iran's own very calculated expansionism."

Citing results of recent Palestinian and Iraqi elections as proof, Reza
Pahlavi explained that, "when Iran's proteges are offered the necessary money,information, and support, along with tools of intimidation and violence, they will always find the upper-hand against their rivals in any such nascent
democracies." As with Lebanon, he added, "if, Iranian generosity, allows
Hezbollah to spend more money than the government on schools, mosques,
hospitals and even social services, no one should be surprised if they win or
dominate elections."

"So, clearly the answer is democracy in Iran, which will be hindered by
military strikes or giving the regime more time through endless negotiations,"
said Reza Pahlavi.

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K